Sports Recommendation

Softball

Softball,  which  is  derived  from  baseball,  is  just  as  exciting  as  baseball  and  emphasizes teamwork just as much.

Origin and development

Softball originated in Chicago in the 1880s. At that time, baseball was played indoors due to weather conditions and space limitations. The equipment and rules were also adjusted along with this change and the sport was called indoor baseball. This sport was later moved outdoors. The Amateur Softball Association was established in 1933 and set up an international committee under it to unify the rules of this new sport and officially named it softball.

Softball developed rapidly after it became an official sport. The International Softball Federation was established in 1952; the first women’s world softball championships was held in 1965; softball became an official Olympic event for the first time in 1996; the International Softball Federation and the International Baseball Federation merged to become the World Baseball Softball Confederation in 2013 to try and make baseball and softball Olympic sports again in 2020.

Field

A softball field is shaped like a right-angled fan and the distance between the arced borders to the tip of the home plate is 200 feet. The field is separated into a grassy outfield and muddy infield. The infield is shaped like a diamond with one base at each corner. The home plate is located at the tip of the field and the remaining three bases are numbered counter clockwise as first base, second base, and third base; the distance between each base is 60 feet. The pitching area is located at the center of the infield with a pitchers plate and the distance between the pitchers plate to the home plate is 43-45 feet.

Deconstruction of the softball field

Softball equipment

	Softball: - Circumference of 30 to 31 cm - Weight of 180 to 200 grams - Typically  yellow  with  a  red  seam.  The color is eye-catching to make it easy for the batsman to see it
	Bat: - Length cannot exceed 86.4 cm - Weight cannot exceed 1 077 grams - Usually  made  out  of  graphite,  carbon fiber, magnesium alloy, ceramic or a mixture or other materials
	Gloves: - Mostly made of leather - The gloves  have  webbing  between  the thumb and forefinger to make it easier to catch the ball - All defensive players have to wear gloves
	Protective equipment: - This includes a helmet, face mask, body protector and shin guards to protect the body from being hit by the ball

Gameplay and rules

A softball games is played by two teams: one team playing attack and one team playing defense. Each team has 9 people at the beginning of the match. The team playing attack aims to score runs, while the team playing defense tries to strike the other team’s players out.

The team playing attack scores runs by hitting the ball thrown by the defense team’s pitcher and then returning to the home plate after passing through first, second and third base in that order. The batter doesn’t have to run pass all of the bases in one go: the batter can stop at either of the other bases and wait till an opportunity presents itself before running again to avoid being struck out (see the following paragraph for details). In this situation, the “batter” becomes a “base runner”. As long as the base runner manages to return to the home base, one run will be scored whether the runner returns to home base in one go or travels from base to base. 

The objective of the defense team is to strike out the opponent’s team members. The attack team’s batters or runners will be struck out in the following situations:

• The batter misses the pitcher’s pitch three times (known as a strikeout);
• The batter hits the pitch, but the ball is caught by the defense team before it touches the ground;
• The struck ball that falls within the grounds is picked up by a member of the defense team and is thrown to a team member who then reaches a base with the ball before the runner; or
• A batter/runner is touched by a fielder holding the ball.

As pointed out above, if the fielder reaches any base before the runner, or if the runner is touched by a fielder with the ball, then the runner will be struck out, so they must find the right opportunity to run. A runner who touches base won’t be struck out, but only one person can stand at one base at any one time, so the next runner can be struck out if the runner on the next base doesn’t move. This means that team members need to have strong teamwork.
 
When a batter hits the ball outside the outfield fence, this is called a home run. The batter and other runners can all score runs by running past all the bases and back to the home base; fielders won’t be able to strike them out by reaching the base before them or by touching them.

Attack and defense will switch once three members of the attack team have been struck out. Both teams get to play attack and defense in one inning. Each match consists of seven innings. The team that scores the most runs in a seven inning match wins.

Slowpitch and fastpitch softball

Softball is differentiated as fastpitch and slowpitch softball. As indicated by the name, the difference between the two lies in the speed of the pitch. In fastpitch softball, the pitcher aims to pitch the ball straight down the middle at a high speed. In a high-level match, the speed of the pitch can reach up to 100 km per hour. In slowpitch softball, the pitcher can only pitch curveballs and slow balls. As softball was derived from baseball, only fastpitch softball was played initially; therefore baseball skills and rules were used and the game was more complicated. Later, in order to encourage more people to play this sport and to help beginners improve, people lowered the skill requirements and difficulty of this sport and slowpitch softball slowly took shape.

Difference between softball and baseball

Softball was derived from baseball, so the basic rules and format of the two sports are very similar. However, when compared with baseball, the field is smaller, the ball is larger and the bat is lighter. This makes this sport suitable for men and women of all ages.

Development and promotion of fencing in Hong Kong

The development of softball in Hong Kong began in 1935 when friendly matches were popular due to the promotion of this sport by people who had returned from overseas. The Hong Kong Softball Association was officially established in 1937 and the sport became more popular in Hong Kong with each passing day. In 1961, the Hong Kong Softball Association set up its headquarters at Tin Kwong Road, Kowloon and all future matches were held at the To Kwa Wan Sports  Stadium.  This  venue  was  provided  with  excellent  facilities  and  maintenance, which helped to enhance the level of competitions. Since its inception, the Hong Kong Softball Association has been dedicated to providing softball training to greatly improve the level of softball in Hong Kong.

If  you  are  interested  in  softball,  visit  the  Hong  Kong  Softball  Association’s  webpage
(http://softball.org.hk).